Vandals attack crucifix photo and threaten museum guards

A PHOTOGRAPH of a crucifix submerged in the urine of New York artist Andres Serrano has been vandalised during an exhibition in Avignon and museum staff have received death threats.

Piss Christ - which sparked an uproar when first exhibited in the United States in 1989 - was damaged on Sunday "with the help of a hammer and an object like a screwdriver or pickaxe", said Collection Lambert, a contemporary art museum in the French city. Moreover, the three vandals had physically threatened three museum guards before fleeing, the museum said.

A second photo, The Church, which depicts the torso of a nun with her hands in her lap, was similarly vandalised.

The museum, which shut its doors immediately after the incident, said it would reopen today and display the damaged works "so the public can appreciate for themselves the violence of the acts".

"Several people have called saying, 'If you open, you're dead'," one museum worker said. "We're nervous and we have asked for protection from the police."